At Interactive Driving Systems we electronically check hundreds of thousands of driving licenses per annum on behalf of a range of clients and partners as one element of their integrated driver risk management programs.

The following summarises some of the latest developments in this rapidly evolving sector.

If you require any further information or wish to discuss any aspect of this service or these latest developments, please contact our team of dedicated Licence Checking specialists, led by Helen Hudson.

A new law to make it easier for police to catch and convict drug drivers took effect in England and Wales 2 March 2015.

From 8 June 2015, the paper licence counterpart will have no valid legal status and will no longer be issued by DVLA.

DVLA is testing a new 'Share Driving Licence' service.

Association for Driving Licence Verification (ADLV) research suggests abolition of the paper counterpart will make electronic licence checks even more important.

Interactive Driving Systems E-consent model approved by DVLA
In December 2014, our model for secure E-Consent was approved by DVLA based on a clear set of data security and consent based principles. For more information please contact our licence checking team directly.

New drug driving offences implemented in England and Wales from 2 March 2015
Driving after taking drugs may lead to a criminal record, loss of licence for at least a year and a fine of up to £5,000. The legislation makes it illegal to drive with certain prescription and illegal drugs in the body.

DVLA launches abolition of the counterpart communications toolkit
After 8 June when the counterpart is abolished, fixed penalty offices and the courts will update records electronically on an overnight basis. Northern Ireland counterparts will continue as normal and are not being abolished. To help raise awareness of the changes, a toolkit of communications resources can be found at: www.gov.uk/dvla/nomorecounterpart

DVLA testing new Share Driving Licence service
As part of the process for the abolition of the counterpart, DVLA hosted a stakeholder webchat during February 2015 in which over 300 questions were asked by participants.

The following key points summarise the discussion:

Share Driving Licence is currently being developed and beta tested between March and June 2015. Driver consent will still be required, with drivers and third party enquirers needing to login to view the results. The record for third parties will be downloadable as a PDF. It will also be date/time stamped for record keeping.

Bulk licence checking will continue to be undertaken via a licence checking intermediary know as an Electronic Driver Entitlement Checking Service (EDECS) - such as Interactive Driving Systems.

Longer term, DVLA is also working through the commercial and contractual requirements for a real-time application program interface licence checking service called Access to Driver Data. We will update you further on this new service with our next bulletin.

ADLV research shows volume of electronic licence checks continues to grow
As the 8 June 2015 abolition of the licence counterpart approaches there has been a considerable increase in electronic checking of licenses by fleets. In the last three months of 2014, the volume of licenses checked electronically through ADLV accredited members, including Interactive Driving Systems, rose sharply by more than 22% on the prior year.

According to the ADLV researcher, this was fuelled by the following:

The removal of the paper counterpart, meaning that manual checks will no longer be possible.

Organisations requiring supported automated and continuous checking with full reporting and audit trails.

Concern that the PDF and printed paper documents generated through the DVLA's single record Share Driving Licence system have no legal standing, are open to tampering and difficult to build into the risk databases used by most organisations.

Previous Update: 9th October 2014

The Department for Transport has announced that the removal of the driving licence counterpart will not now take place on 1 January 2015 as planned. The withdrawal of the counterpart has been postponed until 8 June 2015.

Two new initiatives have made significant improvements for allowing driver licence checks:

DVLA View Driving Licence system goes live.

Association for Driving Licence Verification formed to ensure quality standards.

Both are important for organisations requiring their people to drive on business, and are discussed below.

View Driving Licence system goes live

The new Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) digital services View Driving Licence system went live this week.

This service allows individuals to check their personal licence record online and is freely available.

Andy Cuerden, Managing Director at Interactive Driving Systems said: "It's great that DVLA is improving its systems to allow drivers to access their records in this way in a safe secure online environment."

Association for Driving Licence Verification formed to ensure quality standards

Developments are also taking place to allow organisations better access to batched licence check data to check on the driving entitlements of large numbers of employees who mandate their consent to undertake the checks. This process has been enhanced by the formation of a new trade body, the Association for Driving Licence Verification (ADLV).

Interactive Driving Systems is one of 14 founding member organisations in ADLV. At a time of some uncertainty around batched access to DVLA data, the association has been launched to ensure that fleet users see continued secure access to DVLA driving licence data - to verify that drivers of fleet vehicles are actually licenced to drive.

Formed in part as a response to the upcoming abolition of the paper counterpart to the driving licence, members of this new association are already established providers of driver licence checking through the DVLA's Electronic Driver Entitlement Checking Service [EDECS].

Andy Cuerden, Managing Director at Interactive Driving Systems said: "With all the changes going on at DVLA at the minute, including the removal of the paper-based licence counterpart, we welcome the formation of ADLV as a way to respond to many of the myths and rumours being spread with regard to licence checks."

As a batch service for fleets, the approach is in contrast to the DVLA's proposed Share My Driver Record facility, which is a single-query ad-hoc service that requires each driver to register their consent every time their employer wishes to access their driver record from the DVLA.

Andy continued: "As far as we are aware the proposed DVLA Share My Driver Record portal is being developed for individual checks, which would mean each driver going to the portal to do the check, and no easy way for outcomes data to get into the organisations data warehouse. We also understand that ADLV may have some concerns over the consent process and data security."

With these concerns in mind and to ensure that the highest quality standards are maintained, the ADLV has been set up to ensure appropriate data access governed by strict compliance and protected by effective security, in line with the DVLA's data assurance standards. As well as being ISO27001 registered, ADLV also plans regular audits of members and operates within a strict code of conduct to ensure that the DVLA's data assurance standards are met.

Working on an online batch e-processing basis, subject to consent from the licence holder, ADLV members supply clients and partners with full licence details, have the ability to schedule data re-checks and monitor licence holders dependent on updated driver risk profiles. The data feeds directly into management information systems such as Virtual Risk Manager to allow reporting organisation wide, from the driver level up to a range of management KPIs such as the data shown in the graph below.

ADLV is also working closely with the DVLA on new batch and real-time solutions to further enhance the existing services.

For further guidance, or to find out more about how Interactive Driving Systems can assist you with licence checks and other fleet risk management services, please contact us via: www.virtualriskmanager.net/contact